


ten items or less

by hepaticas



Category: Social Network (2010) RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 07:25:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/317271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hepaticas/pseuds/hepaticas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU where literally everyone works in a department store. Or: Andrew is a starving artist, Jesse plays with LEGOs, someone wears an elf hat, Andrew hides Twilight DVDs, kissing happens, everyone has feelings, and Bartha is a ninja who no one ever sees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten items or less

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is. It started out as pure crack, but then as I edited it became this and I just don't know. Whatever.

When Andrew Garfield meets Jesse Eisenberg for the first time it is a Thursday afternoon three weeks before Christmas and it is raining. Andrew is looking for a job. Jesse already has one. It is not love at first sight. There is no immediate, uncontrollable attraction. They hardly even speak. It goes like this:

Andrew has just picked up an application from the general manager of Nature’s Fair, because it’s only a block away from his new apartment and convenience is important. He doesn’t have a car and he’s already sold his bike and he can’t afford cabs, so. Nature’s Fair calls itself a health food superstore, but in reality it’s more like the love child of Sears and Whole Foods. It has three stories, four sets of escalators, three in-store cafes plus one Starbucks, and Andrew would absolutely love it if not for the fact that he is broke. The rain is significant because it means that he is reluctant to leave the store immediately. He’s only wearing jeans and a plaid shirt, nothing that would be ruined by a little water, but still, he can hardly afford top ramen these days, so he definitely can’t afford an extra trip to the Laundromat just because he had to go out in the rain.

So instead of going out in the rain, he ends up sitting on a bench at the front of the store and filling out the application, and then submitting the application, and then when it’s still raining after that, he wanders around the grocery section of the store until he finds himself standing in a queue to check out holding a basket containing a six pack of beer, a packet of coconut flavored gum, cupcakes, and a bottle of homeopathic ‘mood supports.’

There is an elderly woman in a floor length, gauzy pink skirt in front of him in line. Her long white hair is tied back with a piece of twine and she’s wearing a t-shirt that says ‘STOP ANIMAL ABUSE.’ There is a dog sitting in the front of her cart, which is full of purchases in reusable bags, and it’s staring intently at Andrew while the woman is writing a check for her purchases.

The cashier is leaning sort of awkwardly against the register, chewing on a thumb nail and eyeing the woman nervously. He is wearing a gray hoodie beneath his bright red Nature’s Fair t-shirt. Christmas themed hats seem to be required for employees – Andrew has seen Santa hats and elaborate Christmas Tree hats and antler headbands and the cashier is no exception; he’s wearing a green and red felt elf hat in celebration of Christmas. There’s a nametag pinned to his t-shirt and while the other employees have all decorated their tags with stickers or gel pens, this one just looks like it’s accidentally been put through the wash a few times. It reads ‘JESSE’ in plain black type.

The woman signs her check with a flourish and hands it over. When she looks up, Jesse schools his expression into a smile that’s so forced it’s actually worse than his nervous eyeballing, but the woman doesn’t seem to notice. She just smiles back and reaches over to scratch her dog behind the ear. The dog twitches its tail and doesn’t stop staring at Andrew.

Jesse hands over her receipt and the woman glances at his nametag before saying, “Thank you, Jesse! You look so cute in that hat! Like a real Christmas elf!”

Jesse blushes and says, “I’m Jewish.” And then, “Nature’s Fair wishes you a holly jolly Christmas.” He looks embarrassed as he turns away from her and calls, “Next customer, please.”

Andrew takes a step forward, looks out the window and says, “Fucking hell, it’s still raining.”

These are the first words they ever exchange and they aren’t even really addressing each other.

Neither of them says anything more until Jesse finishes ringing up Andrew’s purchases and says, “I need to see some ID. For the beer,” and Andrew is distracted by the fact that it is _still fucking raining_ , so he just says, “Yeah, sure,” and hands it over.

Jesse hands it back with a nod and a quick, “Thanks.” Andrew smiles as he stuffs it into his wallet and watches Jesse toss the homeopathic pills into a bag.

He’s still smiling as he pays for his things with the last twenty in his wallet. All that’s left now is a couple of ones and some British coins that are basically useless unless he can find someplace to exchange them and even then... He looks up and Jesse has his mouth open like he’s about to speak, but Andrew cuts him off and says, “Do you like working here?”

It’s a genuine question, he really is curious, but Jesse just stands there staring at him, a blush creeping across his cheeks. There is a pause. Andrew waits. And then Jesse looks away, stares intently at a display of lottery tickets and says, “Nature’s Fair wishes you a holly jolly Christmas.”

Andrew grins, shakes his head, says, “I’m Jewish, too,” and then starts to walk away.

He’s several steps away from Jesse’s register when Jesse calls, “Hey! Beer and cupcakes guy!” He turns around, still grinning and raises his eyebrows expectantly. Jesse’s hands paw at his stomach like he wants to put them in the pocket of his hoodie, but can’t get at it through his t-shirt. He’s very pointedly avoiding eye contact and Andrew watches him worry his bottom lip for a second before he says, “They don’t work. The antidepressants – I mean, the _mood supports._ They don’t work.”

Andrew laughs, loud and real, head thrown back. “Thanks,” He says, though he’s not sure what for.

And then he walks away, steps out of the store and promptly forgets about Jesse and starts swearing because it’s still raining.

-

The second time they meet – or the first time they meet _properly,_ really – is on the following Monday when Andrew has been hired and is getting ready for his first shift. He is standing in front of the faded blue locker that’s been assigned to him, undoing the buttons on his shirt and seriously regretting wearing red pants because with the red Nature’s Fair shirt, he is going to look like a tomato. The door to the break room opens and someone walks in just as he is undoing the last button on his shirt. Andrew ignores whoever it is to take his shirt off and toss it into the locker.

He turns around to grab his t-shirt from the break room table (where it is folded neatly next to his nametag, ID badge, keys, and his Christmas headgear: a headband with enormous reindeer antlers on it) and someone lets out a panicky squeak, and it’s then he discovers that the someone who walked in is Jesse and Jesses is staring at him with big frightened eyes. There is a brief pause and then Jesse drags his gaze away from Andrew to stare intently at a spot on the wall somewhere near Andrew’s bicep instead. “Hi,” He says, and Andrew gets the idea he’s trying really hard to sound casual.

Andrew pulls his t-shirt on, stuffs his hands into his pockets and says, “Hey.” Jesse doesn’t say anything else, just walks over to open a locker on the other side of the room. He has a backpack over one shoulder and a bike helmet in one hand and he stuffs both of these in the locker before taking his Nature’s Fair t-shirt out of the bag. Andrew watches him put it on over the white shirt he’s already wearing and then turns away to put his ID badge and keys in his pocket.

When he turns around again, Jesse is wearing the felt elf hat again and looking at him sort of curiously. “I’m Jesse,” He says, quietly and without really looking at Andrew, so that he gives the impression that he could be saying it to someone else, though there’s no one else in the room.

“I know,” Andrew smiles as he nods at Jesse’s nametag and then adds, “I’m Andrew.”

“I know,” Jesse mimics, nodding at Andrew’s nametag where it’s still sitting on the table. Andrew laughs and Jesse looks sort of pleased, but he doesn’t attempt to continue the conversation, he just turns and walks away, hands in his pockets. As he’s walking out the door, he looks over his shoulder and says, “Don’t forget your antlers, Rudolph.”

Andrew rolls his eyes and hollers, “Oh, go make some toys or something!” but he’s smiling as he pins his nametag to his shirt.

-

The don’t really talk much during Andrew’s first week, because Andrew is working in the electronics department and Jesse is in the toy department.

Jesse spends the week building LEGO displays and pawning customers off on Joe, who is working with him. He answers any and all questions with, “Go and find the redhead with the Santa hat, he can help you, I just make the displays.” On Saturday morning, Joe corners him and demands that Jesse do some work while Joe gets to slack off and play with LEGOs, because _‘I know I look tough and strong and I’m endlessly charming, like a Greek God of toy sales, but I can only take so much, Jesse, okay, even Greek Gods need a break.’_ So Joe spends the day building an enormous LEGO giraffe while Jesse handles customers. He only accidentally makes one child cry and one parent reports him for accidentally revealing that Santa isn’t real, but whatever, okay, The Justins know that he is really bad at customer service and they keep putting him out on the floor anyway, so it’s their own fault, whatever.

Andrew is really kind of useless in the electronics department. He can point people to the right place, help them find something if they know exactly what they want, but when it comes to questions like, ‘ _which dvd player is better?’_ or _‘can I use this cord to hook my laptop up to my TV?’_ he is totally in the dark. He does manage to recommend a couple of video games and when a pair of very excited teenage girls come in saying they need a phone card they can use to call home from England, Andrew is the only one in the department who knows which card will work. He smiles at them and says, “My parents use this one to call me from home,” and they giggle and clutch at each other as he rings them up. When they’re gone, Emma, one of the girls working with him, says, “Could they have been anymore smitten?”

Other than that though, Andrew spends most of his time fielding questions to other employees who actually know their shit and goofing around. In one week, he turns all the TVs to play reruns of Sabrina The Teenage Witch – which is a quality show and he will not hear any arguments, hides every single copy of the film version of Twilight, because Rob would want it that way, and leaves inspirational notes on the display laptops – things like _‘believe in yourself! you’re brilliant! :)’_ and _‘smile! today is a good day!’_ He finds a bouncy ball that someone dropped and spends an entire day lying on his back behind the counter, tossing it up into the air and catching it. He only misses and hits himself in the face with it once.

His last day for the week is Saturday and when he walks into the break room that night, he sees Jesse shoving his work shirt into his backpack and smiling at something that Emma is saying. He thinks about saying hello, but then he remembers that his first paycheck has just made its way into his bank account and instead he grabs his jacket from his locker and leaves to go grocery shopping without even taking off his antlers. That night he drinks cheap beer, eats four oranges and a cheap, microwavable frozen dinner. It is the best meal he’s had in ages.

-

During the holiday season, Nature’s Fair is open 24 hours a day. Andrew finds this out when he comes in on Monday after spending Sunday lying face down in bed, calling his friends in England and forcing them to tell him not to just give up and come home. (Carey is sympathetic, but also very serious when she tells him to _shut up, you are not quitting, Andrew, I will do bad things to you;_ Matt says ‘ _you’re not giving up and coming home_ ,’ and then spends an hour telling him about a new sweater he bought; Rob laughs for five minutes straight when Andrew tells him about the hidden Twilight DVDs and then tells him to _hang in there, mate, you’ll find something soon_.) He stumbles half asleep into the break room, backpack containing his work clothes slung over one shoulder and he has just opened his locker when a voice behind him says, “Garfield, Eisenberg – where are you guys?”

He turns around and one of The Justins – The Justins being the managers of Nature’s Fair – is standing in the doorway holding a clipboard and looking way too cheerful. Timberlake sees him and nods and then turns and nods at somebody else – Andrew doesn’t know who, Eisenberg, presumably, but he hasn’t learned anyone’s last name yet and the break room is too crowded to see, because it’s getting close to Christmas and they’re calling in extra help. “Right,” Timberlake says, “Change of schedule. You guys have been switched to the night shift this week, so get the fuck out of here and catch some extra Z’s.”

“Night shift.” Andrew says stupidly, because _what._

“Night shift,” Timberlake confirms and Andrew doesn’t even have the energy to inquire further, so he just nods and then shuts his locker and walks out. He hears somebody else – Eisenberg, probably – walking out behind him and then Timberlake calls, “I’ll see you bitches back here at nine!”

Andrew is just stepping outside when Jesse catches up to him. He’s wearing a black rain coat with the hood up, worn jeans and a pair of glasses. His sneakers slap on the ground as he walks. He pushes his glasses up and then smiles at Andrew and says, “See you at nine, Garfield,” and then he turns and starts jogging towards a bike rack, hands in the pockets of his coat.

Andrew says, “See you at nine, Eisenberg,” even though Jesse is already too far away to hear.

-

It is 9:02 PM and Jesse is lying on his back in a tent in the camping department when the stairwell door opens and he hears someone walking towards him. His tent is green and he has an electric lantern inside, lit so that everything outside the tent is silhouetted, black on glowing green. The someone from the stairwell zeroes in on his tent immediately, comes up and stands outside it with a hand on one hip. He doesn’t say anything, but Jesse knows it is Andrew anyways because first of all, no one else is working on this floor tonight and second, he can see the silhouette of Andrew’s fluffy hair and the antlers from his uniform. Jesse wiggles awkwardly until his head is poking out of the tent and he’s looking at Andrew upside down. Andrew grins.

“Hello, my little elf friend!” He says, bumping Jesse’s hat gently with the toe of his shoe.

“Hello, Rudolph.” Jesse answers.

Andrew is holding an orange in one hand and he tosses it back and forth as he asks, “What’s the name of the elf in the Rudolph special? The one that wants to be a dentist?” Jesse shrugs and Andrew says, “Well, you’re no help at all,” but he’s grinning still so Jesse really can’t find it in him to be offended. He watches Andrew toss his orange in the air, catch it and then look at it like he’s considering it very seriously. After a moment, he says, “Are you hungry?”

“A little,” Jesse tells him; he’s starving, actually, slept all day after he went home and hasn’t had anything to eat since cereal that morning. Andrew says, “All I’ve got is an orange, but I will very happily share,” and Jesse gets the feeling that the orange is _literally_ all Andrew’s got, so he says, “Why don’t we go to the café?”

“Because the café is closed.” Andrew says, smiling like he knows Jesse knows that, but doesn’t mind telling him again anyway.

Jesse rummages in his pocket and then holds up a jingling key ring. “I’ve got Justin’s keys.” He says and Andrew starts to laugh.

-

They are very sneaky about going into the café. Really, they don’t need to be –they’re the only ones working the third floor and none of the customers have made it up yet. Still, they don’t turn any of the lights on and after they’ve tiptoed into the kitchen and found left over veggie burgers from that day’s lunch, they sit very close together at a table and whisper over their food.

They each have two burgers. Andrew scarfs down his first and then, in between big bites of his second, he rolls his orange on the table under his palm and says, “Why do you have Timberlake’s keys?”

Jesse snorts. “Not Timberlake. Bartha. He gave them to me.”

Andrew stops rolling his orange, brow furrowed. “He gave them to you? Why?”

“He traded the keys for sexual favors.” Jesse says, deadpan.

Andrew almost chokes on the food in his mouth, but, to his credit, he pulls it together and hardly misses a beat before saying, “Wow. You think I could get a deal like that?”

“You’re not his type.” Jesse’s voice is still casual, but he’s smiling at his burger. “Too British.”

“That’s too bad,” Andrew says, and he’s smiling now, too. “Maybe you could put in a good word for me. I’m a killer in the sack.”

Jesse turns very red then and says, “We’re just good friends. Justin and I. He always gives them to me when I get stuck with the night shift. It’s – sometimes I get overwhelmed and he lets me go into his office to calm down, but – obviously at night he’s not here so his office is locked. Um. So. Keys.” He shrugs, blushes some more and suddenly becomes very interested in his burger.

Andrew says, “That’s really nice of him,” and for some reason Jesse looks surprised and neither of them says anything else.

-

After they eat, Jesse locks the café up again and they sort of wander aimlessly before settling back in Jesse’s tent. There are buzzers set up around the store so that customers can call for assistance if they need it and it doesn’t really matter where Andrew and Jesse are, because they’ll be able to hear the alert over the intercom from anywhere.

Andrew stretches out on his back in the tent. He has to lie diagonally just to fit and even then his legs are bent. His arms are tucked under his head and he’s smiling at Jesse, who is sitting cross legged on a pillow at his side. His t-shirt is riding up, leaving a bit of flat stomach and a slender hip bone exposed. He can see Jesse casting occasional glances at the bare skin, but he’s not really sure what that means. They pass an hour talking about how ridiculous Timberlake is before Andrew yawns and says, “Who else is working tonight?”

Jesse stares at his hands as he says, “Joe and Emma are down on two, I think. Rooney and Max are on one.”

“There’s only six of us?” They’re staying open late to accommodate the Christmas rush but apparently six employees is enough? Really?

“There’ll be more later,” Jesse says, still staring at his hands. “We start the 24 hour thing this week, but it doesn’t get crazy until next week.” He pauses and then says, “Did you – I mean, did you want to go and hang out with one of the others? You can. I won’t be – I don’t mind.”

Andrew blinks at him, genuinely confused. “Why would I want to do that?” He asks.

Jesse is saved from answering when the intercom announces ‘ _customer needs assistance in fitness and sports.’_ He says, “I’ll get it,” and then he leaps to his feet and runs to do just that.

-

Jesse arrives first again the next night. When Andrew comes upstairs, t-shirt and antlers already in place, Jesse is sitting on a washing machine in Appliances drinking a milkshake from McDonalds. There’s a happy meal in his lap. Andrew comes over and hops up onto the machine next to his and Jesse hands him the happy meal without a word. He thinks Andrew looks more pleased than a happy meal probably warrants, but he doesn’t say anything, just sips his milkshake and nods when Andrew thanks him.

Andrew kicks his legs against the dryer he’s sitting on and asks Jesse questions about his life, his friends, his family, as he eats. Jesse talks about his cats. He is surprised when Andrew seems genuinely interested.

Sometime around midnight, Andrew asks, “Do you like to dance?” and Jesse says, “I don’t really know how,” and then Andrew drags him into electronics, turns on a radio very loud, and teaches him how to Salsa. They dance for half an hour, pressed close, Andrew’s hands all over Jesse as he teaches; Andrew is flushed and sweaty and grinning, laughing breathily every time one of them steps on the other’s toes.

Jesse is embarrassed and tired and maybe a little bit weirdly horny when Emma comes upstairs because she heard the music and, laughing, says, “Can I cut in?”

Jesse says, “Yes, please.”

He definitely imagines the way that Andrew looks just a little disappointed for a second before he and Emma start to dance. Emma’s a better partner anyway.

Jesse goes downstairs and spends the rest of the night filling in for Emma on the second floor.

-

On Wednesday night, Andrew brings food. Well, he brings a giant Tupperware container of homemade pasta salad and copious amounts of booze, which is pretty much the same thing. When Jesse arrives, Andrew is in Outdoor Living, curled up in the corner of an enormous padded porch swing and singing _Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer._ He greets Jesse with an enthusiastic, “Hi Jess!”

Jesse’s eyes flick over the food and the beer and Andrew and then he folds his arms over his chest and asks, “Are you drunk?”

“No!” Andrew says, mock indignant. “I would never get drunk on the job.” Jesse blinks at him and, grinning, Andrew adds, “At least not without you.”

Jesse rolls his eyes, but he can’t help the smile that pulls at his lips and when Andrew offers him a beer, he takes it.

Sometime later, when Andrew has gone through two beers and Jesse is still nursing his first, they start up a game of truth.

 _(“Drinking game,” Andrew had said, “We need a drinking game, you aren’t getting drunk enough.” A pause and then, “Truth or dare!”_

 _Jesse stared at his beer and said, “I don’t – um. Truth or dare, I’m not really. Dares, specifically, truth is fine, but I can’t really…”_

 _Andrew just shrugged and said, “Alright. Truth then. You refuse to answer, you take a drink.”)_

Half an hour into the game, Andrew has yet to refuse to answer a single question, but that hasn’t stopped him from finishing off another beer. Jesse hasn’t had to refuse anything either – partially because Jesse tells everyone everything anyways, but also because Andrew has been keeping his questions easy. They’re passing the Tupperware of pasta salad back and forth, sharing a fork because Andrew only brought the one and Jesse is just buzzed enough to not worry about the germs. They’re sitting close together in the porch swing; Andrew has his feet in Jesse’s lap and Jesse is rocking the swing with one foot. There’s a few customers milling about, but none of them have called for assistance yet and they’re paying very little attention to the boys on the swing.

Andrew takes the pasta salad that Jesse is holding out to him and starts digging through it with the fork for an olive. He doesn’t look at Jesse as he asks, “Why are you working at Nature’s Fair?” He doesn’t _say_ ‘you could be doing so much more,’ but Jesse hears it anyways.

Jesse shrugs. “I like it here.” He says and Andrew looks up at him with a raised eyebrow like _that’s not what I meant._ So Jesse says, “I used to… act. I used to act.” Andrew’s eyes go comically wide at that, and he looks like he wants to say something, but he doesn’t interrupt. “I was, um. I liked it? It was… safe. I could sort of feel things, you know, and not have to analyze every emotion because they weren’t – I mean they weren’t really mine.” Jesse isn’t making eye contact, but he can see Andrew nodding very seriously out of the corner of his eye. “So that was, uh, good. I guess I was alright at it, too, because people started recognizing me and – that wasn’t as good. I couldn’t really deal with that. I – I stopped acting, is the point, when people started recognizing me. And Justin – Bartha, I mean, he got me a job here, because no one expects their cashier to be that-guy-from-the-movie, you know, so it was a good way to get away from all that and still be able to pay my rent, and then – I like it, you know. It’s not so bad. I, um – I write, too, and…” He cuts off abruptly when he realizes he’s rambling. “Sorry.” He says, “I’m just going to stop talking now.”

Andrew’s response is immediate. He sit up straight, waves the hand holding that’s holding his fork, flinging a bit of pasta at a passing customer, and shouts, “No!” Jesse turns to look at him, confused, and Andrew blushes and adds, a bit more calmly, “I mean, no. Don’t stop talking. I – You’re lovely. I like it when you talk.” He’s rubbing at the back of his neck with his free hand and staring at Jesse’s knee.

“You’re ridiculous and you should seek professional help,” Jesse says, but he smiles when Andrew looks up at him and asks, “What do you want me to talk about?”

Andrew settles down again, relaxes and sips at his beer. He crosses his ankles in Jesse’s lap and says, “Anything. Stock options. Your cats. The route you take to work. The best way to make applesauce.” He scoops up a forkful of pasta salad and devotes a ridiculous amount of focus to getting it to his mouth without dropping any.

“You chew with your mouth open,” Jesse says after a moment. Andrew looks up at him and grins.

-

On Thursday, Andrew convinces Emma and Joe to trade floors with them, which means that Jesse find Andrew in apparel, wearing six different scarves. When Jesse comes up behind him, Andrew demands that Jesse trade hats with him, because ‘elf goes much better with this look than reindeer.’

Jesse says, “My hat won’t even fit over your hair!” and Andrew looks mock offended, but lets it drop and instead ties one of the six scarves around his head.

There’s only one customer in the entire store and she’s upstairs in electronics, so Andrew spends most of the night complaining that he’s bored. He tries on brightly colored belts and makes Jesse model sunglasses. Eventually the customer from upstairs comes down to their floor and they settle down, sitting side by side on the counter by the register while she browses.

As the woman is looking through a rack of dresses, Andrew knocks his knee against Jesse’s and says, “Jess, my headband is hurting my head. _Please_ trade with me?” His voice is whiney and when Jesse looks over at him, he’s frowning and rubbing at his head beneath the headband. “Please?” He says again and Jesse rolls his eyes, takes off his hat and hands it over. Andrew looks happier than anyone has any right to over a felt elf hat. He takes his headband off and places it very carefully on Jesse’s head before taking the hat and putting it on.

It really _doesn’t_ fit over his hair. He doesn’t seem to care. “You’re ridiculous,” Jesse says.

Andrew bumps their shoulders together and says, “My head didn’t really hurt.”

“Ridiculous,” Jesse repeats, and then the customer comes over with an armful of clothes that she wants to buy, so Jesse hops down behind the counter to ring her up while Andrew very cheerfully asks for her opinion on his new hat-scarf-belt combo.

-

Friday is their last day working the night shift together. They’re back on the third floor again, sitting in the swing from Wednesday sharing a bag of Bugles that Andrew maybe stole from the first floor on his way in, whatever, when Andrew happens to glance out the window and notice that – “Jess! It’s snowing!”

Jesse is trying to crack a bugle right down the center, but he looks up, wide eyed, and says, “What?”

“It’s snowing!” Andrew says again and he’s beaming as he gets to his feet.

“Yes,” Jesse says agreeably. “It’s New York in December. It does that sometimes.”

“Hush,” Andrew says, still smiling. “Come on! I want to go play in it!”

Jesse blinks at him for a moment and then, when he’s determined that Andrew is being serious, he says, “No. Andrew, no. We are not going to play in the snow.” Andrew honest to god fucking pouts. Jesse turns his attention back to the bag of bugles.

There’s a long pause and then Andrew huffs and says, “Well, fine. I’m going to make a snow angel. You can just stay here, see if I care. I won’t. I won’t care.”

Jesse says, “You sound like a five year old,” but when he looks up he’s smiling and Andrew smiles back.

While Andrew is outside making snow angels, Jesse migrates from Outdoor Living to Bed and Bath, serves three customers and sneaks into the café to get a diet coke. When Andrew comes back inside, Jesse is drinking his coke from a bendy straw and trying to look interested in a customer’s questions about curtains. Andrew doesn’t even acknowledge the customer; he just marches right up to Jesse and sticks his ancient camera phone into Jesse’s face. “Look!” He says cheerfully. Jesse looks. It’s a picture of Andrew’s snow angel. “What do you think?”

Andrew’s belt buckle has left an obvious imprint in the middle of the snow angel. His antlers have fallen and left a very clear mark on its head. There’s a footprint from one of Andrew’s fans in the middle of the snow angel’s head.

Jesse thinks it’s adorable.

He also thinks that Andrew must have laid face down in the snow to make it. He tears his gaze away from the phone to look at Andrew and then – “Jesus, Andrew, you’re shaking!” Andrew’s hair and clothes are dripping with melted snow; his face is brushed bright red from the cold and he is shivering violently, teeth clacking together, but he ignores Jesse’s exclamations to grin and wave his phone around some more.

Jesse’s customer is staring at them. He says, “Sorry, but what about my curtains?” and Jesse says, “Sorry, right, can you excuse me a moment, sir? Why don’t you go look at the Martha Stewart line, I hear they’re very classy.”

And then he puts his diet coke down on a shelf, grabs Andrew by his shoulders and tugs him away. Andrew goes willingly, chattering about how much nicer the parking lot looks covered by snow and how he really wants to go back out and make a snow man, will Jesse help him? Jesse says, “No, you’re definitely not going back out, now come here,” and then he grabs a throw blanket from a display bed and wraps it tight around Andrew’s shoulders.

Andrew hasn’t stopped chattering since Jesse dragged him away from the customer, but when Jesse pulls the blanket around his shoulders he falls silent. After a moment, he pulls the blanket tighter and says, “Thanks, Jess.”

Jesse realizes he’s still clutching Andrew’s shoulders and he immediately lets go, stares at a spot to the left of Andrew’s bicep and nods.

He’s about to tell leave Andrew to get warm and go help the customer with the curtains when Andrew suddenly surges forward and kisses him.

Jesse doesn’t kiss back. He shuts his eyes and clutches at Andrew’s hip with one hand, but he doesn’t kiss back. Andrew pulls away, sighs softly against Jesse’s lips. He breathes out, “Jess,” and Jesse says, “I can’t, I – I can’t.”

Jesse takes off, jogs away from Andrew – Andrew who is following, calling _Jess, Jesse, wait_ – and doesn’t stop until he’s locked in Bartha’s office with Andrew on the other side of the door.

Andrew whispers through the door, “Jesse, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have – will you please come out?” Jesse doesn’t answer. He sits down on the floor with his back to the door and listens to Andrew breathe until the intercom calls that a customer needs assistance and he hears Andrew sigh and walk away. Jesse stays in Bartha's office until morning comes.


End file.
